As Long as We're Together
by muggleborn.dragon.ryder
Summary: Because as long as we're all together, we're all okay. Collection of drabbles and one-shots on the herd's adventures, misadventures, and other humorous/dangerous escapades. Rated T just in case, but everything is really more K than anything. ON HIATUS.
1. Adventures in a Nameless Herd

As Long as We're Together

Chapter 1: Adventures with a Nameless Herd

Summary: Sid becomes convinced that they need a name. Set right after the first movie.

**A/N: So, I rewatched Ice Age today and I haven't written anything for this fandom for such a long time. Like, seriously. It's crazy. The last thing I wrote was a 600-word one-shot on Diego and Sid's relationship xD so, I needed to do something more, and rewatching the movie just gave me the idea. Plus, I'm really bad at keeping things updated when they're not my...main stories, if you will. My main stories are the ones I work on the most, pay the most attention to and stuff like that, and my presence in the Ice Age fandom is so passive that I could be absent for months and no one would notice. Thus, I have decided to write a fic that practically requires sporadic updates. However, I am going to rewatch the other three soon enough, so you'll probably see Ellie, Crash and Eddie appear soon. Furthermore, everyone might be a bit OOC, because I haven't written Ice Age for a very long time. Oh, and one more thing: Diego is my favorite character. This means he might get more attention than any of the others in the herd, but I'll try not to do that. I love pretty much everyone equally - it's just I like Diego a little more, but I'll try my hardest to give everyone plenty of screen time and attention in this fic. Oh, also, I'm probably gonna hop around in the timeline. This is set immediately after the first movie, but the others might be set in different timelines. Please enjoy! Happy reading and writing!**

* * *

"That's it!" Sid the sloth's brown eyes widened as he proudly gave his announcement. "We need…" he paused here for dramatic effect, drawing in a deep breath and holding it until he noticed the other two glaring at him in obvious impatience. "A name!"

"We already have names, Sid," Manny pointed out, speaking in a mockingly slow voice, as if he was trying to convey that he thought his friend was stupid.

"No, Manny, you don't get it," Sid replied, waving a hand dismissively. "I mean, we – our herd – needs a name! We can't just be 'the herd'! We need something that sets us apart, like…like…" he snapped his claws, trying to think of something and coming up empty – unsurprisingly.

Diego frowned. "We don't need any more of your stupid ideas, Sid."

"Alright, alright, I'm the one who formed this herd, and I command more respe—

"What?" Manny practically snorted, bolting up from his position on the ground; they had all previously been settling down to sleep. "You formed this herd…" he repeated sarcastically. "You wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for me!"

Sid waited a moment before speaking. "That," he finally announced, "is very besides the point, Manfred. Anyway, as I was saying, we need a name. We could be…Sid the Sloth and His…Respectful Sidekicks!"

Diego's frown grew bigger.

"Okay, okay, no? Okay, how about this one: The Missing Links! Huh? Huh? No? Okay, well, then, how about…Manny the Moody Mammoth," he pointed to Manny, then to Diego, "Diego the Dangerous…" (he knew it would inflate the tiger's already seriously oversized ego, but it was a perfect word to describe him – or it might have been, before Sid discovered he was really nothing but a huge marshmallow) And…" he dragged out the word, gesturing lastly to himself and running a tongue across his teeth. "…Sid the Sexy."

Manny coughed to hide a laugh, and Diego let loose a short, unwilling chuckle, unable to hide his amusement.

"What?" Sid's eyes narrowed, prepared for one of Diego's sarcastic comments.

"Sid," Manny managed, though he seemed to be barely fighting off a laugh, "you're taken off naming duty."

"What? What? Why? Okay, just because you guys didn't agree with The Missing Links…wait, wait! I got another one! The Migrating Mammals! The Frostbite Group? No…okay, wait, the Herbivores? No, then Diego would get kicked out..."

"Yeah, keep that in mind," the saber murmured under his breath. "Because if you come with one more dumb name—

"There's gotta be something that describes us!" Sid cried, in total despair.

"It doesn't matter what we're called!" Manny interjected desperately, both in an attempt to keep the peace between Diego and Sid and calm the distressed sloth. "C'mon, guys, let's just get some sleep."

It really didn't matter, Manny couldn't help thinking to himself, as Sid surrendered and wandered disconsolately over to his sleeping spot, curling into a ball and closing his eyes. Relieved that he was no longer going to be subjected to dumb names, Diego gave a small sigh and settled down as well, and Manny saw the thin bones of his shoulders relax.

Really, it didn't matter what they were called – just so long as they were together, anything worked. From something as generic as 'the herd' to something as gag-inducing and unthinkable as 'Sid the Sexy'.


	2. Pranks and Knowledge

As Long As We're Together

Chapter 2: Pranks and Knowledge

Summary: Manny wakes up to Sid screaming his head off, Diego about to eat the possums, and Ellie trying to convince him not to. This was, without a doubt, a very weird night. Set right after Ice Age 2.

**A/N: Hi :D Well, I just rewatched mostly all of Ice Age 2 the other day, so I was in the mood to write on this again. This is set right after Ice Age 2, so Manny and Ellie aren't married yet - if mammoths even get married? I don't imagine they're together, together yet. But anyway, I hope you enjoy! :D Please review! Seriously, thank you guys so much, I didn't expect five reviews! :D **

* * *

It was the shouting that woke the mammoth.

He prided himself on being a light sleeper – just the slightest noise of discomfort from any other member in the herd, and he was up and running in seconds, firing on all pistons. Looking at the scene before him, he registered two things: he didn't know how he had been able to sleep through that racket they were currently making, but he was so, so glad he had. Honestly, the sight of Sid screaming his head off, Ellie pleading with Diego not to eat her brothers, and Diego looking very much like he was going to do so anyway, left Manny concluding that this had been a very weird night, and maybe he should go back to bed. Maybe he'd wake tomorrow to find that this had all been just a bad dream, and maybe he would never have to know the reasons behind this.

Unfortunately, things didn't work that way. He knew he certainly couldn't go back to sleep now, though he wanted to. For one, Diego was still on the verge of eating the possums, and like it or not, Crash and Eddie were part of the herd, too. It was Manny's job to step in with Ellie and talk the saber tooth tiger down, and then he should at least try to calm Sid. The sloth was absolutely hysterical, clutching at Diego's fur with his eyes tightly closed and wailing, "We're gonna die!"

Manny dealt with the second thing on his list immediately, rather than the first. "Sid, shut up!"

The furry creature slowly blinked open his brown eyes, looking around himself cautiously. "Diego! You're alive!" He embraced the tiger with a tenderness that Diego would normally have snarled at, but he was currently too focused on eating Crash and Eddie.

"Of course I'm alive!" Diego snapped, throwing the sloth off his person with a growl. "It was just these two miscreants!"

"Oh." Sid finally seemed to spot the possums, and looked rather embarrassed.

"No, listen, Diego, they're carrying diseases, remember," Ellie was speaking as soothingly as she could, under the circumstances, patting his back with her trunk in what looked to be an annoying fashion.

"I don't care!" the tiger roared furiously at the mammoth, but both seemed hesitant to actually fight the other, as if they were afraid of hurting each other.

"Please," Eddie pleaded as his brother's tail disappeared into the tiger's mouth, "please, it was just an innocent prank, I don't want to die here, Ellie – I don't want to die here for a prank!" he wailed.

"I can't feel my tail!" Crash moaned piteously.

Manny decided to try to intervene again, as nobody appeared to have yet noticed he was there. "What's—

"If you didn't want to die," Diego snarled at them, "maybe you should have thought before you acted, and this could all have been avoided!"

"It was a prank!" Ellie defended her brothers hastily. "They didn't know it would turn out this bad—

"What's going on—

"Spit them out!" Sid attacked Diego with the first flexible twig he found, hitting him once on the head with it. "We're a herd now! You can't eat family!"

"Sid, if you get in my way, I'm going to eat you, too!"

"It was a prank!"

"I can't feel my tail! Oh, the pain!"

"Ellie, what's even going—

"You just said you couldn't feel your tail, why are you suddenly feeling pain?"

"Diego, I'm not kidding, stop eating Crash."

"I'll stop eating him when he apologizes!"

"What's going on here?!" Manny's voice suddenly cut through the babble, and he looked around at them all in utter confusion. He himself didn't notice what a thunderous sound he could make, when he cared to, but the others certainly did, as everyone collectively drew back, away from him, holding their breath.

He looked at them all impatiently, eager for them to recover and explain.

Crash was first. "This failure of evolution is eating me!"

"Watch who you're calling failure, pal," Diego snarled, "or it won't just be your tail I'm eating."

Crash began to wail.

"Stop it! Diego, stop it!" Ellie screeched.

"All of you!" Manny exploded. "_Stop_!"

Everyone froze in place, staring up at the larger mammoth again.

"Now," Manny huffed, "now that we've got that sorted out, will anyone tell me – what happened?"

"The boys pulled a prank," Ellie pointed with her trunk to the possums still at risk of disappearing into Diego's mouth, "and it scared Sid and Diego, and their screams woke me. The next thing I knew, Sid was crying because he was convinced Diego was dead, and Diego was about to eat them."

Manny looked at them all for a long time. "Diego," he said at last, "Sid is right. You don't eat family. Spit him out."

Diego rolled his eyes, but consented to spit the possums back out on the ground, where Crash lay, dripping with saliva and giving Diego a burning, furious look. Diego returned it with venom.

Manny looked around at the herd, surveying them, slightly unsure what to do now that everything had been dealt with. He hesitated for a moment longer, turned to go back to bed, and then apparently thought better of it, because he turned around to ask, "What was the prank?"

There was a long silence while the rest of the herd exchanged glances – Crash and Eddie looked rather shifty, Sid still terrified at the very mention of the prank, Diego furious and embarrassed, and Ellie a strange mixture of proud and angry – Manny suspected both emotions were directed at her adoptive brothers.

Not one of them looked willing to speak.

Okay. Manny decided this was okay with him. He nodded at them, already heading back to bed. He decided then that he really didn't _want_ to know.


End file.
